What images or ideas come to mind

Today’s Topic:
Why did Nazis send Jews to “ghettos” and
what was life like there?

3

During the 1930s, the Nazis used
terror and discrimination to
encourage Jews to leave Germany.

4

Anti-Jewish boycott

Many Jews left Germany “voluntarily.”
Some were forced out when the Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of
their citizenship.

Others realized that things
would only get worse after
Kristallnacht in 1938.

5

Small numbers of Jews were
admitted to the U.S., Canada, and
elsewhere, but strict immigration
quotas prevented this number from
being very high.

(1930s)

6

Despite increasing evidence of
persecution, some Jewish refugees
were even sent back to Germany,
where many of them later perished.

(1930s)

St. Louis

7

Many Jews moved out of Germany
to live with relatives in neighboring
Poland, which had the largest
Jewish population in the world.

(1930s)

8

(1930s)

9

The exodus of Jews from Germany
to Poland proved to be a case of
“out of the frying pan, into the fire.”
Why?

(1930s)

10

In 1939, Germany conquered
Poland...
• Suddenly, Hitler had millions more Jews
within the borders of his empire – six times
as many as had existed in pre-war
Germany.
• Soon he would also
invade the Soviet
Union, inheriting
millions more Jews.
11

Hitler’s plan to simply “push” Jews out of his
growing empire would not work. Where were
they supposed to go?

Mein Fuhrer, our
successful invasion
of Poland has
resulted in us
acquiring millions
Right away,
more Jews!
Mein
Fuhrer!

This is intolerable!
We must find a
“final solution” to
the Jewish
problem!

Adolf Hitler

Jew

12
Reinhard Heydrich

At first the Nazis devised a program
to centralize and isolate the Jews
in the newly conquered territory.
They did this by creating “ghettos”
– neighborhoods where Jews
would be forced to live apart from
mainstream society.
13

Most Jews spent years locked
away in “ghettos” -- unaware of
what would happen to them next.

14

Life in the ghettos was difficult.
• jobs were scarce
• food was limited – people starved
• conditions were crowded, disease spread
• Nazis “rounded up” Jews periodically and took them away
on trains to points unknown.
• Eventually all ghettos were “liquidated” when the camps15
were ready

To make matters worse, the Nazis relied on
Jewish leaders to keep order in the ghettos.
These Jewish councils (called “Judenrat”) were
expected to decide which Jews got work permits
and which Jews got put on trains to concentration
camps…

Bialystock
Judenrat
(Poland)

16

“Give Me Your Children!”
“A grievous blow has struck the ghetto. They are asking
us to give up the best we possess -- the children and the
elderly. I never imagined I would be forced to deliver this
sacrifice to the altar with my own hands. In my old age, I
must stretch out my hands and beg. Brothers and
sisters: Hand them over to me! Fathers and mothers:
Give me your children! . . . “
-- Chaim Rumkowski, Chairman of Judenrat, Lodz
Ghetto, September 4, 1942

17

To this day there is controversy about whether
the Judenrat are heroes or villains of the
Holocaust.
Rumkowski chose children and old people to
sacrifice to the Nazis, but he is credited with
preventing the Lodz ghetto from being
“liquidated” until the last possible moment – a
fact that may have saved tens of thousands of
lives.
What do you think?
18

Ghettoization proved to be
expensive and complicated for the
Nazis to manage in the midst of a
war…

19

So almost as soon as they had
been established, the Nazis began
emptying or “liquidating” the
ghettos.

20

At first the Nazis liquidated the
ghettos by simply shooting the
inhabitants en masse.

21

22

23

But this “solution” to Hitler’s “Jewish
problem” created its own
complications.

24

Mass shootings didn’t work well.
-- They were slow.
-- They were messy.
-- They were noisy.
-- They wasted bullets.
-- The killers broke down mentally.

25

Mein Fuhrer, we have
a problem!
Lets create secret

camps to
concentrate the Jews.
We will work them as
slaves, and then kill
them with poison gas!

The stress of shooting
Jews is causing our
elite killing units to
break down! People
are starting to ask
Asquestions!
my Fuhrer We need
an
alternate plan.
wishes!

Heinrich Himmler, “Architect
of the Holocaust”

26

The Nazis built a huge
concentration camp system
connected by railroads.

27

“Work Will Set You Free”

There were two main types camps:
labor camps
&
death camps

28

Major
Camps
MajorDeath
Labor
Camps

29

What do you notice about the locations of the two types of camps?

Concentration Camps
Labor Camps
NonJews/Gypsies?

Death Camps
No.

Forced Labor

(sometimes)

Crematoriums
(ovens)
Mass Death
Gas Chambers

No.
30

Upon arrival at a camp, Jews would
give up all possessions and be
sorted by gender and age.

(Many never saw their families again after this point.)

31

Unlucky prisoners would be sent
immediately to the “showers”…

32

Others were selected by Nazi
doctors to be the subjects of
gruesome Nazi science
experiments.

Dr. Josef Mengele –
“Death Doctor of Auschwitz”

33

Still other able bodied Jews would be selected,
shaved, tattooed, given a uniform, and sent to
work as slaves until disposed of by the Nazis.

34

Many Jews died from hunger, disease,
or by being worked to death.

35

There was no escape.

36

In 1944, the Soviet army approached Poland. The
Germans began to march Jews at gunpoint in the
snow to Germany. They blew up the camps with
dynamite to hide their crimes.

…tens of thousands more died on the way.

37

When the war ended in 1945, Allied
armies “liberated” the camps, and
found the few survivors near death.

When
the Jews
in Jews
the ghetto
were
longer
useful,
they
would
be
From
the
trains,
would
be no
lined
up
and
“selected”
to and
either be
The
Using
rounded-up
community
Jews
records,
were
crammed
Nazis
identified
into
“ghettos”
in
While
in the
ghettos,
most
people
did not
have
adequate
packed
into
cattle
carstoand
shipped
to
concentration
camps.
sent
to Labor
Camps
be
worked
to
death,
or
sent
to
a Death
Hitler’s
“Final
Solution”.
nearby
“rounded
towns,
where
up”
all
they
Jews
lived
from
sometimes
their
homes.
for
years.
Many
would
diethey
en few
route.
food.
A lucky
were
sent to
work as slaves
factories.
Camp
where
would
be killed
immediately
in a gasinchamber.
Jewish “shtetls”
(villages)
factories
ghettos

Labor Camps

trains
roundups
48

Death Camps

With the horrors of the Holocuast
over, questions remained.

Could survivors be reunited
with their families?
Where would the
survivors go?

What would happen
to the Nazi
perpetrators?
Questions

How had this horrible
event happened?
49

We were too terrified
to ask where the Jews
were going!

We were just
following the will
of the German
people!
Nazi
official

Avg. German

Who is to blame
for the Holocaust?
I did not
kill a
single
person!

Hitler

I just moved
people from
point A to
point B!

“I was just
following
orders like
any good
soldier!”

We did
not know
how bad
it was!

Nazi guard
50

Train operator

Allied leaders

For the next several minutes you
are going to watch a slide show.
Each period you see before your eyes
represents one Jewish life lost during the
Holocaust.